Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company's top-line growth rate could be more sustainable than expected and its operating margins could recover given due to less retail discounting. The firm raised its price target on shares to $97 from $65.
  
• UBS upgraded King Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: KG) to Buy from Sell based on expectations that Sandoz will settle patent litigation regarding Skelaxin after last weeks settlement of Clarinex with Schering-Plough (SGP).
  
• Jefferies upgraded Reliance Steel (NYSE: RS) to Buy from Hold as it believes steel prices and demand are close to near-term bottoms. The firm raised its target on the stock to $44 from $25.
• Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America/Merrill.
  
• Nestle (OTC: NSRGY) was lifted to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was upgraded at Wachovia to Outperform from Market Perform.

Just when you thought that the trend of sacrificing financial CEOs due to poor earnings was over, one of the most widely known people on Wall Street got kicked to the curb. Lew Sanders, CEO of huge money management firm Alliance Bernstein (NYSE: AB) is gone, and a guy who was about to be without a job replaced him.

According to the company's press release, "Alliance Bernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE: AB) today announced that its Board of Directors has named Peter S. Kraus Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Kraus, 56, succeeds Lewis A. Sanders, 62, who is retiring from the firm after 40 years of service."

That is not the whole story. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) writes that Kraus was not likely to keep his job at Merrill Lynch as it was merged into Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). "Mr. Kraus drew some resentment for terms in his contract that triggered a payment of as much as $25 million with the takeover."

AB's assets have been falling. At the end of September, they were $590 billion. By the end of October, the number had dropped to $482 billion. The fact of the matter is that almost every investment management firm has been losing assets due to the falling markets and redemptions. That does not appear to be enough of an excuse to keep Sanders in place after 40 years at the company.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB) to Outperform from Market Perform as they find AB's risk/reward attractive given its attractive long-term business model. Wachovia upgraded Watson Pharma (NYSE: WPI) and Teva Pharma (NASDAQ: TEVA) to Outperform from Market Perform citing valuations and positive drivers for generics that include patent expirations and market share expansion.
• UBS raised Lloyds TSB Group (NYSE: LYG) to Neutral from Sell on expected pricing power following the HBOS (OTC: HBOOY) acquisition.
• Otter Tail (NASDAQ: OTTR) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
• GFI Group (NASDAQ: GFIG) was upgraded at Citigroup to Hold from Sell.
• Merrill upgraded Logitech (NASDAQ: LOGI) to Neutral from Underperform.

Analyst downgrades:

• JP Morgan downgraded shares of Lloyds TSB Group to Underweight from Neutral on capital concerns and believes the HBOS acquisition is not in the best interest of shareholders.
• Stephens downgraded Universal Truckload (NASDAQ: UACL) to Equal Weight from Overweight on valuation and concerns about a slowdown in the flatbed sector. The firm's target remains $28.

Someone lost a lost of money as the prices of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) hit multiyear lows on news that several analysts believed the federal government would have to take the two companies over. In all likelihood, the move would wipe out common shareholder.

Famous stock-picker Bill Miller of Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) may have been one of the casualties. According to work done by Reuters, Legg Mason, Capital Group, AllianceBerstein (NYSE: AB) and Fidelity lost a total of $4 billion on the mortgage company stocks over the course of last week's trading.

While all fund companies may have been hit equally, which no one can know exactly at this point, Miller's reputation as a leading fund manager is being devastated. After years as one of the most successful portfolio managers in the country, his fund has underperformed the S&P for two years.

It looks like Miller is going for a third.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer explains why this poor earnings report is such a crushing blow.

Yep, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) (Cramer's Take) messed up, for certain. We had no idea how bad things were. They just gave us no signal. Devastating.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take)? We all knew that Prince was a pathetic risk manager. Check that, Bob Rubin and the Crown Prince don't think so, but the rest of the world does. So the fact that Citigroup needs to talk to Bob Steele at Treasury to save itself isn't all that shocking.

Wachovia (NYSE: WB) (Cramer's Take)? I thought it was more conservative than this. Then again, it bought Golden West at the top and even that great lender succumbs in this horrid environment.

But the one that really hurts, the big surprise, is Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take). To me this bank had been doing everything right, tight standards, good national growth rollout, fantastic research, good solid banking.

Suddenly, I feel that everything's on the table after that quarter. It just really blew it in lending and trading and investment banking, in mortgages, you name it.

Fortunately, of these four, Band of America could come back the fastest. Ken Lewis is no-nonsense. Anyone who disappointed will be forced out. He will review and slice and crush, as we see already. But it is the one bank that I know I had been telling people had the real growth you want out of a bank. The one that would not be a value trap. And given the fact that there were no more banks it could buy, I figured now would be when it would just return dollar after dollar to shareholders in buybacks and dividends.

I think it still will.

But after this quarter, sadly, there will be fewer dollars to give back and I just don't know how they are going to grow as fast as everyone else any more.

To me it looks like, right now, we may have lost the best bank ATM out there.


RELATED LINKS:

• Microsoft Won Facebook Bid ... Suckers
• Merrill Leaves Lingering Fears

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer was long Citigroup.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Genesit Energy LP (GEL), EnerNoc (ENOC) and Comcast (CMCSA) were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Genesis Energy (AMEX: GEL) was initiated with a Buy rating and $40 target at Stanford, as the firm believes the company's affiliation with Denbury Resources and pending acquisition of petroleum products, terminals, and transportation businesses from the Davison family will drive rapid growth.

• EnerNoc Inc (NASDAQ: ENOC) was initiated with a Hold rating and $42 target at Jefferies, due to valuation. EnerNoc was also initiated at Morgan Stanley with an Equal Weight rating and $40 target.

• Stifel expects Comcast (OTC: CMCSA) to benefit from higher penetration levels of DVR and HDTV set-top boxes over the next several years and initiated shares with a Buy rating and $34 target.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Select asset managers were initiated at Credit Suisse:

• AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB), Affiliated Managers (NYSE: AMG), Fortress Investment (NYSE: FIG), Invesco (NYSE: IVZ), Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) and T Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) were initiated with Outperform ratings.

• Blackrock (NYSE: BLK), Calamos Asset Mgmt (NADAQ: CLMS), Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE: EV), Federated Investors (NYSE: FII), Janus Capital (NYSE: JNS), Legg Mason Inc (NYSE: LM) and Waddell & Reed (NYSE: WDR) were initiated with Neutral ratings.

• Deutsche Bank initiated Ryland Group (NYSE: RYL) with a Buy rating and $52 target, as well as Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) and Meritage Homes Corp (NYSE: MTH) with Hold ratings and a $23 target and $29 target, respectively.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Main market news here.
CPI data came in, rose 0.4%, more than forecast.

TheStreet.com is pounding the table on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), saying that in the next 30 days investors will realize Apple is about to beat the most optimist of expectations in sales and earnings.

BusinessWeek.com examines the new proposed bill allowing generic drugmakers to manufacture biological drugs (such as hormonal and atibodies) in addition to the chemical drugs allowed today. The winners of such a bill will of course be generic drugmakers such as Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ:TEVA) and the losers will be those that rely on biotech for livelihood such as Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Genentech Inc. (NYSE:DNA). The consumer and large companies trying to curtail health-care costs would also benefit. But there are risks too as outlined in the article.

What are the implications of Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) moving operations to China? It has been rumored that the Chinese government has given Intel the nod to start building a $2.5 billion chip-manufacturing plant there. While labor costs will be reduced, the political backlash could also have consequences.

Coca-Cola Co.'s (NYSE:KO) name is inappropriate according to Bolivia's coca growers. They want the company to drop the "Coca" from its name and ask the United Nations to decriminalize the leaf.

If you though no one listens, here's an example of how customer complaints made a difference. Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE:TWX) executive in southern-California was forced out after too many complaints.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) plans to launch a Chinese language version of its popular photo-sharing site Flickr.com this year, targeting Hong-Kong users.

Some analyst calls:

• Goldman Sachs added Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ:SBUX) and Federated Investors (NYSE:FLL) to its conviction buy list, while removing McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD) and Alliance Bernstein (NYSE:AB).
• Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) was upgraded to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Bear Stearns upgraded beer companies Anheuser-Busch Co. (NYSE:BUD) and Molson Coors Brewing (NYSE:TAP) from Peer Perform to Outperform and from Underperform to Peer Perform
• Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ) was upgraded by Matrix Research from Hold to Buy.
• On the other hand, Matrix Research downgraded Altria Group Inc. (NYSE:MO) from Strong Buy to Buy.